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Jul 3, 2024 · A radical force in early twentieth-century music, George Antheil (1900--1959) captured the exhilaration and anxiety of the Machine Age through provocative compositions featuring industrial sounds, propulsive rhythms, and experimental instrumentation.
- Her first film was banned by the Pope and Hitler. Lamarr soared to international stardom at age 18 when she appeared in the 1933 Czech film Ecstasy.
- She was the model for Snow White and Catwoman. Ink-black tresses. Cherry-red lips. Porcelain doll complexion. Lamarr’s beauty was simultaneously classic and exotic, making her the perfect model for Disney’s Snow White.
- She’s a rock star at Google. Google paid tribute to Lamarr in a smart and stylish 2015 Google Doodle celebrating her 101 st birthday. According to Jennifer Hom, who designed the Doodle, Lamarr has “a kind of mythical status” at Google.
- She’s in the Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles…sort of. Forget the campfire flatulence. One of our favorite moments in Mel Brooks’ uproarious comedy Blazing Saddles is when Harvey Korman says, “It’s not Hedy, it’s Hedley.
Antheil’s autobiography Bad Boy of Music did its best to perpetuate the myth, but these later symphonies tell a different story.
Today, Antheil's original dream of a gigantic machine‑controlled performance can be realised. Thanks to MIDI and MIDI‑compatible player pianos from manufacturers such as Yamaha, PianoDisc, and QRS, locking together 16 of them is simple.
On this date in 1942, Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr (called “the most beautiful woman in Hollywood”) received a patent with composer George Antheil for a “frequency hopping, spread-spectrum communication system” designed to make radio-guided torpedoes harder to detect or jam.
- Early Compositions
- Best Known Works
- Music, Science, and Technology
Reactions to his first performances were cool at best. His technique was loud, brazen, and percussive. Antheil suggested that ingrained in his mind were the din of machines from Trenton factories. Critics wrote that he hit the piano rather than played it, and indeed he often injured himself by doing so. His reputation was to good and bad extremes, ...
Antheil’s best-known composition is Ballet Mécanique (1924). The “ballet," about 30 minutes long, was originally conceived as the musical accompaniment to the film of the same name by Dudley Murphy and Fernand Léger. Eventually the film makers and composers chose to let their creations evolve separately, although the film credits still included Ant...
Antheil's philosophic rationale for composing Ballet Mecanique(as described by Ewen) was echoed decades later by fellow American composer, George Rochberg (who also turned to a neo-Romantic style in his later years) in a speech delivered in 1971. Regarding the advance and predominance of scientific discovery, Rochberg opined, "…for in science today...
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George Antheil (1900-1959) first gained fame and notoriety in the 1920s, when his harshly mechanistic compositions caused an uproar in the musical establishment.
